A Vanilla Dove

Cypress trees like evergreen steeples rise above rows of gravestone woes, their shadows lie side by side like railroad ties across writhing paths banded like snakes; gravel birth cords sinuous sensing the ground seeking the sun crossroads of life and death and rebirth; where mortals breathe and grieve and orchid-petal-pinions of flower-faced souls sweep the steep edge of cornsilk skies — where flightless wraiths, their black-seed sins unshed wear phantom veins (the pulse point’s bane) strain like garden snakes unable to shed old skins — where cypress trees press in prayerful gesture and slabs of granite panes lily-graced or lichen stained wear the pith and pain of life-stories, a downy feather falls. Where mourners grasp at porous sunbeams as if to hold a misty angel, as if to lift a wispy veil, as if to sense the drifty dead, ghosts of gold slip the clasp of clawing hands… motes of memories float in scattered sunlight cradled —or— captured; a strew of ashy reveries? a slew of stippled wraiths? Where dust and rays mingle in hazy ways soft-bodied coos airily woo radiant fingers of God to reach through priestly cypress forever green, to touch upon headstones a halo glow, to touch upon wraiths a pearly tunnel and time to go, to drop a sun dapple where I sit amongst the marigolds’ morning weep and futile streams of mourners’ tears and fertile dreams of pulpit prayers. The autumn blood of maple trees drip titian leaves, the crimson veins rusted the lily and the lichen decay-dusted — where evergreen arms calm the squall of wind, its thrash in thrall to circular cypress boughs, rested in the center with the storm stilled nestled and nested in warm maternal love, a plain dove broods a clutch of sorrows. From the lily adorned like a bride and scented like June to the lichen shrunken and grayed like an old maid, mouths twist as exhales escape with misereres; mortals detesting destiny and wraiths, wriggle-spined, who pine for a pity-spark from the sun to tame the shame and lift them like smoke from a flame. Prayers to repair and spare the grievers and non-breathers drift in clear air like milk-haired thistle seeds, collected and cozied ‘pon plumes of a cooing courier, their deliverance ensured from stratum to stratus — where mothering skies plush with nimbus wombs bear baptism rains to bathe plaintive pleas and where wings unfurl like white-flags-of-surrender, a pure dove ascends with ancient hymns. Among headstones huddled in haunted peace and bardo bones of litterfall I linger… and long for candles’ throng of homecoming comfort — where granite-glazed-windows wear a blank stare, where dust-light scrim – a specked specter of pollen and pollution affirm matters of life and death I cry, where marigolds wear the solar glow of the rise and demise of the sun, where a downy feather falls below a heaven of baby’s-breath-stars I sigh, where cinder clouds float in negative space mourning their loss of light – yet – where cornsilk threads unspooled from the moon vibrate with angels’ praise I await a vanilla dove.